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Mergers, acquisitions, and alliances, rather than online banking, offer the best platform for penetrating national retail markets in the EU, according to this study by Carsten Eppendorfer, Rainer Beckmann, and Marcus Neimke, of the Ruhr-University of Bochum.
The integration process in the European banking sector considerably differs with regard to product types. Deep integration can be observed in the money market as well as the market for wholesale products. In contrast to that, a strong segmentation of national markets still exists for retail products.
In this context, the paper analyses market access strategies of European banks. The analysis is based both on aggregate sectoral data and on four company case studies (BSCH, Nordea Group, BNP Paribas and HSBC).
A clear result is that mergers and acquisition as well as cooperations and strategic alliances form the most important market access strategies. Direct cross-border sales and the establishment of branches and subsidiaries are of minor importance.
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